Well, I certainly have my favorites. I have not tried a lot of the modern varieties, the few that I did try were not as good as the best older ones. Here are some of my current favorites.

Scott

Gold Dust - nice early peach. Not all come out great but many do.
TangOs - a very good tasting all-yellow donut. Can be rubbery.
Clayton - a great classic yellow peach which is highly disease-resistant. Can be small.
Winblo - Excellent tasting, a go-to variety for ease of growing and taste. From same breeding program as Clayton.
Ernies Choice - Not top league but still good. Large and beautiful and not very blemished. Has some red by the pit.
Carman - This is a great midseason white peach. It is almost as good as Silver Logan (which rots too much).
Foster - A very sweet/sour peach with great peach flavor; one of the very best. Prone to rot and light bearing.
Early Crawford - When properly ripened have a extraordinary citrus-sweet flavor, one of the best. Very small fruits.
Pallas - An unusual honey peach (think more honeydew/honey). They way overset so thin like crazy to get good flavor.
Carolina Gold - Heavy on the orange in the flavor, a solid peach a notch down from the other NC peaches (its from the same program as Clayton/Winblo).
Rio Oso Gem - Fruit is excellent, highly flavored and right near the very top.
Oldmixon Free - An incredible late-season white. This is the standard for white-fleshed peaches. Very reliable production of large fruits as well. There is a reason why this was the most famous peach variety 150 years ago.
O'Henry - very good peachy taste, lots of peach scab spotting. Cracks some years.
Late Crawford - This guy took several years before it started to get good flavor but is now excellent. Its a classic American peach.
Indian Free - A great cranberry tasting peach which unfortunately has lots of rot problems.

I second the recommendation for Winblo. You also
should try Harvester, Redskin, & Jefferson.

Hi Scott,

Which nursery you got your Winblo from, please?

Now I think I need Winblo and Oldmixon. They both sound incredible. Thanks Scott. I had time today to give my existing peach trees a second spray of copper, as we have had rain and snow, day after day. I'll find the trees! Thanks so much. Mrs. G

Scott,
Another question, when does Winblow ripe in your area, please?

The only nursery I've seen that lists Winblo is Vaughn nursery in TN, but its shipping season has ended. If I could find it this year, it's great. If not, I can wait. This is a little late to order bare root trees anyway.

Thank you for much for your suggestions.

I found Winblo at The Fruit Tree Farm.com. Are they good? They have stopped shipping for the year so I'll order from them next year. Also found 'Oldmixon' at South Meadow tree farm. Thanks Scott. Mrs. G

I've ordered from both Vaughn (last year) and FruitTreeFarm (Cumberland Valley Nursery). Both are inexpensive and have delivered. The trees from Vaughn were a bit smaller, though they were also cheaper (though not much of a factor if you are buying only a few).

Vintage Virginia Apples may at some point offer Old Mixon Free- it is listed on their site.

Another place you can get Old Mixon Free from is Tierra Madre, during their bare root season. I got one from there this year, and while it is much pricier, it is quite large. It is similar in quality to those I received last year from ACN (5/8", ~40" tall, 10+ branches). From what I saw last year, peaches grow pretty quickly, so it won't make as much of a difference as with apples or pears. But the larger ones at planting (5/8" (ACN) vs 3/8") were still larger after a year in the ground.

I would check out Adams Co.... $29 if they have any left
If you are buying only 1 tree from FTF $8 + $20 s&h
Is it not worth a buck to get peaches a year earlier?

also FTF told me they were out of Winblo

Winblo is listed for zone 7-8. Not cold hardy enough for me, unfortunately.

Have to check Scott's list again.

Mamuang,

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the zone listing of 7-8 for Winblo, if you got that info. from Fruit Tree Farm.

I'm in zone 6 and grow some of the peaches they list as zone 7-8.

Loring - Although these trees aren't old enough to start fruiting for me yet and it is known to be a little more winter tender than some other peaches, but another commercial grower nearby has grown Loring for years and he likes it a lot.

Redskin - They list it as zone 7-8 but it's been very reliable for me. A few years ago (I think 2009) we had a bloom freeze and Redskin was one of the few peaches that had a full crop.

O'Henry - They list 7-8, but no problems here.

It generally doesn't get to minus 10F here most winters (even though the zone listing is 6) but the 2011 winter did get down to minus 8F and those two trees did fine.

I have Winblo planted and plan on planting other peaches they list zone 7-8 like GaLa, and the Prince series peaches. I have heard the Prince peaches are a little more winter tender, but Jerry Frecon (Emeritus Rutgers) really likes them and so far what seems to work in NJ also seems to work here.

"Indian Free - A great cranberry tasting peach which unfortunately has lots of rot problems"

Brown rot? Can you elaborate on this?

Its probably too late to get many of these for this spring, and some are generally quite hard to find. I don't think Southmeadow is selling Oldmixon anymore. I ordered one from them 10 years ago and am still waiting for my tree...

Also I agree with Olpea that those hardiness numbers are meaningless, I would ignore them. Any peach should grow in zone 6, probably even the honey peaches which are the least hardy. Winblo is an early/midseason peach.

Yes, Indian Free is prone to brown rot. Its not a horrible rotter but its pretty bad. I am looking for a better red-fleshed peach to replace it. I have a couple IF seeds growing; since it is not self-pollinating maybe I will get a cross which has more disease resistance.

Scott

I live close to Cumberland Valley Nursery (fruittreefarm.com) and Vaughn nursery. I've been to both locations and have checked out their operations. I was impressed with both, and service has been very good. Their prices are about the same, and the trees are also comparable in size. I bought peach trees from CVN for only $5 each and an Asian pear for $7.50. My three plum trees from Vaughn were $7.60 each. Size of the trees were as good as you'll get from any other online nursery and at a fraction of the price.

Even though they have technically ended shipping for the season, I'd still give them a call to see if they'd be willing to work with you. The owners of each run the business, so you aren't just speaking with someone at a call center. Also, I know CVN carries a lot more varieties than they list on their website.

Thanks Scott for the info. I still want to try it, I will keep the fungicides flowing on it. Luckily it is fairly dry here I have seen some red nectarines, like Artic Glo and Red Raspberry.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Fri, Mar 29, 13 at 17:51

Rob,

Thank you for your vote of confident on these two nurseries.

I checked Vaughn's sites, the biggest Winblo cost $7. Pam Vaughn just e-mailed me back. She estimated that the shipping cost to my area for next season could be about $20. Maybe, I need to buy more than one tree.

Hi Everyone,

Vaughn Nursery has Winblo on Halford rootstock. Vintage Virginia Apples has Winblo and all other peaches on Lovell rootstock. (It carried several peaches Scott mentioned above).

Is either rootstock good for the Northeast, zone 6? Any advantage/disadvantage of Lovell over Halford or vise versa, please? Thank you.

Both nurseries are closed for this shippping season.

Mamuang,

I've not seen any difference in seedling rootstocks of Lovell, Halford, Bailey, or Tenn. Natural.

Research doesn't show any significant differences in these non-clonal rootstocks either. There are very small differences, (Lovell produces a slightly larger tree, Bailey is slightly more winter hardy, etc.) but nothing really substantial, which is probably why they are all commonly used, pretty much interchangeably.

Guardian (not to be confused with Nemaguard) is another non-clonal peach rootstock sometimes used by southern nurseries. Although I don't have any peaches on Guardian, it's supposed to perform like all the rest, so I wouldn't be concerned if they offered peaches on that root as well.

If it's me....

Assuming your Elberta is a real Elberta... which means August fruit most years...

Belle of Ga - also a Late season peach...

and Early Crawford is also late - Mid August (Though it's Earlier than 'Late Crawford..)

So.. You already have a PILE of peaches coming off in August....

Pick Early/Mid season peaches...

Winblo - about 2 weeks before Elberta. Delish!
Red Haven - ripens mid June.. and an AWESOME performer

Anyway - here's a good list from Clemson University... 2 different farms trying them out.. but you can see approximate ripening order and some discussion... Yours are pretty well all clustered within a 2 or 3 week ripening period...

Note - Musser farm is typical acid, depleted 'Georgia Red Clay' soil, up by Greenville, SC... Cooley farm is more Yellow Sand/loam soil and it's farther downstate....

Thanks

Here is a link that might be useful: Clemson Peach Report 2012

"and Early Crawford is also late - Mid August"

John,

Do you grow this peach? I've tried to find a date of harvest for this peach and can't find anything consistent, so I was wondering if you have personal experience with this peach?

I was going with Arboreum on that one... Don't currently grow it...

Like you said - all sorts of conflicting reports.... and no University trial data on it... Some places say it was the earliest peach of their day... Others put it around August...

Thanks

Olpea,

I really appreciate your advice on peach rootstocks. Great info.

Scott apparently grows Early Crawford. Hopefully, he'll chime in on its harvest date in MD.

Thanks John,

I've been curious when this peach harvests. The old USDA bulletin below lists ripening date of Early Crawford and other peach varieties in the early 20th century for various locations (pages 4-10).

The dates for Early Crawford seem to be all over the board (even for a given state).

I suppose the Arboreum should know when their own peach ripens, so they're probably the best current source. If it ripens in for them in Mid Aug. in CA, it is indeed a later peach, at least by today's standards (which have moved up the peach season).

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Peaches: Varieties and Classification

Thanks Mamuang,

I've asked Scott about the picking date, but as I recall he didn't make any notes on the harvest date for this one.

Yes, the lateness of Early Crawford is a sign of how peach ripening has evolved. Since I have so many older cultivars my peaches as a whole tend to come in later. The above list is in ripening order, Early Crawford is in the mid/late August period for me.

Scott
PS olpea, our posts overlapped. I did have a log of it in 2009.

This post was edited by scottfsmith on Sat, Mar 30, 13 at 21:14

Thanks Scott,

I've got Ernies Choice and Carolina Gold, so that gives me a pretty good ball park when Early Crawford ripens, if I ever get the tree (still waiting on it).